22 = 5 Oakville Beaver | Thursday, September 15, 2022 | insidehalton.com TOWN GETS MIXED RESULTS ON DIVERSITY, INCLUSION SURVEY DAVID LEA dlea@metroland.com ie Town of Oakville recently carried out an as- sessment of the current state of diversity and inclu- sion within the municipal: ity and here are 12 im tant things. residents should know. + The town partnered with the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion to carry out this assess- ment, which was complet- ed over the course of 15 months. The findings were presented to council Aug. 9. + The assessment in- volved the review of 50 olicy documents, consultation with 60 com- munity groups and a com- munity survey featuring 600 respondents. +The survey found most participants agreed the town values inclusion, di- versity, equity and accessi- bility in the provision ofits programs services. Most of these participants also recognized that forts are being made % promote these values. » The survey also found that more than half of re- spondents have been reluc- tant to participate in town programs because they felt they didn't belong. Some of the barriers listed to this participation included: cost, lack of programming in languages other than English and limited acces- wn of Oakville image To The Town of Oakville has completed its diversity and inclusion assessment. sibility for those living with physical disabilities. + Most participants re- ported that the composi- tion of town staffis not rep- resentative of the residents of Oakville. Some partici- pant comments noted that representation may be im- proving, but many men- tioned a lack of visible ra- cial/ethnic diversity in staff and council members. + A town employee di- versity and inclusion sur- vey was also conducted as part of this assessment. The overall response was 49.2 per cent with 944 of 1,917 town Tnployees 2 par- ticipating. + The survey found that 81.5 per cent of respon- dents feel the person they report to promotes a re- spectful and _ inclusive workplace while 76 per cent feel their workplace does not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic and other inappropriate com- ments or jo! ° Of thee surveyed, 61.4 per cent feel employees from all backgrounds and with a range of identities such as age, family status, gender/gender _ identity, ethnicity, $8 sexual ae tion, religic ., have e uitable eppervnnliles to advance their this organization. + 58.3 per cent of respon- dents feel their unique val- ue is known and appreciat- ed by the town while 54.3 per cent feel that the town supports taining their overall phys- ical and mental well-being. + Alook at employee de- mographics found that 48 per cent of the town's work- force are women, 3.7 per cent less than their com- munity demographic of 51.7 per cent; 22.6 S Per cent are racialized ins, 8.2 per cent lower than their community demographic of 30.8 per cent; and17.5 per 1260 SPEERS RD. UNIT#13 - OAKVILLE DIET RIC cent are persons witha dis- ability, 4.5 per cent lower than Oakville's population at 22 per cent. ther hand, the survey found 9.6 per cent of the town's workforce is made up of LGB2SQ+ per- sons, 4.5 per cent higher than their community de- mographic of 5.1 per cent; and 1.2 per cent are Indige- nous persons, 0.5 per cent higher than Oakville's overall population at 0.7 per cent. + It was also found that women had the highest re- presentation in town man- agement and non-manage- ment Positions 1 within the town. Indigen eople ha a the Teast” re- presentation within town management. + Town staff are in the process of putting together a multi-year plan aimed at promoting greater inclu- sion, diversity, equity and accessibility and address- the issues discovered by the assessment. A draft of this plan will be shared with council in 2023.